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HENGQIN LIFE WTA ELITE TROPHY ZHUHAI

November 4, 2018

Ashleigh Barty

Zhuhai, China

A. BARTY/Q. Wang

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you just talk through the match a little bit. It was a lot tighter than the scoreline indicated.
ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, absolutely. I know that whenever I have played Q in the past, it's always been an extremely tough match and there's a tendency to have long games, whether they're return or service games. It's kind of grinding out those games. It was nice to get off to a quick start. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to consolidate that in the first. I didn't do too much wrong. It was just a little bit of execution, missing by a couple of feet here and there. But in the end, very happy to get out with the win and going home a very happy girl.

Q. Not only you won the big title, you also have reached your best ranking at Number 15. Can you talk about the emotion.
ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, very cool. I wasn't aware of that, but that's a really neat way to finish off the year. It's been a truly phenomenal year. My goal is to stay top 20 and try and consolidate as best I can. We've been able to do that and come away with a couple of titles, as well, and still being very successful in doubles. It's been a really, really amazing year. Now we get to go home to celebrate that and then prepare for bigger and better things in 2019, starting with the Australian summer.

Q. You got to stand up there was Steffi and just kind of shared time on stage with her. We don't see her a lot on tour. What was that experience like?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: It's amazing, isn't it? It really is. I was lucky enough to spend a very small amount of time with Steffi and Andre in Vegas when I was quite young, when I was 13 or 14, only for a few days. You know, she's an absolute genuine champion. I love her slice backhand. I mean, it's just really nice to see her still so passion about the game. And to be able to stand up with her, it kind of gives you goosebumps a little bit. She's one of the best that we've ever had in our sport. It's really humbling to stand up there next to her, even if it's just for a couple of moments.

Q. During the first match, you first started to have a lead of 4-0. Later Wang fully caught up to have it 3-4 against. It was possible that you guys could have 4-4. What did you do to adjust yourself to later dominate the pace on the court?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: I think it was just bringing in my margins a little bit, not going for quite as much. I was doing the right things. It was just a matter of missing by not a very big margin. Just had to bring those in a little bit, continue to try and get an upper hand in the points, bring in my variety as much as I can, and in a sense, just stay calm. It's still 4-3, to me. It's absolutely no panic stations.

Q. So yesterday, we've seen that Wang played pretty well and she's done a great job against Muguruza so that she won over the games. In terms of the preparation against her, when you knew she was going to be your opponent, what kind of preparation have you done? Can you comment on her style. Do you like her way of tennis?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, she played a fantastic match yesterday, she did. And she was in control of the match. She was very relaxed when she came on the court and she played some of her best tennis. I play a different game to GarbiÃ±e, so it's a little bit of a different match-up. Yeah, she's extremely solid off both wings. Makes you work extremely hard. You know you're always in for a very tough physical battle. And she makes you work for every single point, no matter what the score is. And I knew that I had to be ready and play every point on its merits regardless of what the score was.

Q. Usually when a player won a championship, we wish to see him or her next year, but I'm not sure if it's the best wish for this specific tournament because Qiang Wang talked about she is targeting Shenzhen WTA Finals next year. I'm not sure if you have the same ambition. If you want to move to another level, to top 10, what should you improve?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: Absolutely, that's the goal, isn't it? I think this is an absolutely very nice backup plan, but the ultimate goal is to be in the top 8 in the end of the season. And we'll continue to celebrate this year, first and foremost, and really kind of sit back and look at what we've achieved. It's been a very positive year, it really has. Then we get started into training for our preseason and start fresh. I think the start of the year, it's always a little bit of the unknown. I get an opportunity to play in my home country for the first month. Really try and enjoy myself, get a good start, and then start making strides towards trying to get to Shenzhen come the end of the year.

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